Episode #282 – The Mystery Of The Church

With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow Special guests: Julie and Carole Nelson

(Julie) Ok I want to share this because it goes along with kind of something Carole shared on the podcast that came out today, a little bit about seeing Christ in the whole Body. And I’m just pondering it from the standpoint of how much when Christ is actually residing and moving in somebody, how much it influences you that you don’t realize. And yesterday I had an experience where… And I want to preface it by, this is so much how Christ in you, John, has affected me deeply, like not in a conscious way, but deeply because that’s how I recognize Him. But anyhow yesterday I was just in Home Depot just doing the mundane buying a new showerhead. And my son had asked me specifically that I was, I had distinct orders from him to go and, “Mom, be sure you ask one of the experts at Home Depot to tell you which showerhead you should buy.” So I’m standing there looking at this wall of fifty showerheads, and I’m remembering what Samuel said, and I’m thinking, you know, I really don’t want to trouble anyone to do this, but I did tell him I would, so. And about that time that that happened, this man, this older gentleman with a big handlebar mustache, walks up and he says, “Can I help you find something?” And I said, “Well maybe, if you can recommend one of these showerheads.” And I was holding one in my hand and I said, “This is the one I’m kind of leaning towards, do you know if it’s any good. And he said, “Well, I put one of those exact showerheads in for my wife, and she really did like it.” And he emphasized the ‘did’. So I’m just in the natural at that moment and I’m thinking product, something happened. So I said, “Well what happened?” And he said, “Well she passed away.” And my heart just sunk and I just, immediately I was like, oh Lord, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry I said that and embarrassed this man, and whatever. Well immediately I felt like the Lord said, “It’s ok, he wants to talk about it or he wouldn’t have brought it up.” So I needed to see some other things in the store and, and all of a sudden he walked me all over that store, showed me all these different things. And as we went on I felt kind of the Lord’s urging to go ahead and ask him about his wife. And he goes then and he begins to tell me this really horrible, horrible story of suffering, and what they went through. And I was so quiet. I mean I really didn’t do anything but listen. And I really didn’t do anything but listen. But this morning… But I had such… I had just felt just filled with compassion for this man. And by example, John, I’ve watched you so many times be so incredibly gentle with people. I’ve watched you honor people in so many cases when we’ve been traveling, or whatever, I’ve just seen the respect that is so Christ in you. Just the respect and the shepherding of Christ in you with people. And that was about the end of my consciousness of it at the moment. So this morning, as I was just sort of sitting, the Holy Spirit brought that whole scene back and He began to show me how literally it, and you know, this is what He showed me. Literally it’s as if the Son of God wanted, He wanted to come down and walk a few isles with that hurting man. And, and that man, I know he was affected by it, because later after I’d gone on to… he’d kind of passed me off to the appliance man or whatever, he came back and found me. And he was like, “Ma’am, if you need anything, you know I’m in charge of the credit at this store, I can get you twelve months, I can…” I mean it was like he was just bending over backwards, he was so responding to what was totally silent. It was not, it was nothing that happened in words. I just loved him and hurt for him. And anyway, this morning as I saw it, it was like I could recognize Jesus in that because of how I have encountered Him in Martha, how I’ve encountered Him in you, and that was just… I don’t feel like I’m giving it too good of words right now, but it was awesome for me to see how much I experience Christ in the Body. I experience Him in different people, and I’m so affected by Him. And I don’t realize how much I’m affected until something like that happened, and I knew that it was the Son of God because I’ve met Him, I’ve walked with Him, I’ve seen, I’ve seen Him be the most incredible Shepherd through you to people. I’ve seen Him show so much compassion, and you always do it. He in you always does it with such gentleness and such quietness. It’s never this obnoxious… I mean I think all of us for different reasons have gotten to where I hate that obnoxious Christian. I said nothing, I always thought, I had no inclination to say anything to him. I didn’t say anything goofy or churchy or ‘well you know she’s in a better place now’, or whatever. I just, I didn’t feel any leading to at all. It was like literally… I know that he recognized it on some level and responded, but the awesomeness of the Son of God, that He, as ruling the universe, wanted to come down and wanted earthly feet to just walk a few isles in Home Depot with that man, and love him and honor him. And I just, when He showed Himself to me this morning in it, I just wept and fell in love with Him all over again for His kindness in the quietest kind of ways. And that to me, I just relate it to what we’ve been talking to, that, that is a mystery to me, to realize that Jesus Christ is walking through Home Depot on a Sunday, or Saturday afternoon, and we don’t know. And I believe I have a glimpse of it, I couldn’t tell you how or whatever, but I believe that literally brought the power of the Son of God into that store, and into that man’s life in that moment. And there’s no way that I can measure or imagine what that did. But I trust the Lord enough to know that Him coming because of Who He is, Him coming with His compassion in that moment to that man, did something for him, and my involvement in it was nothing other than what I have watched by example from you all, simply giving my body and trust Him that He is Who He is, in the insignificant details of my life everyday. (M) Even Samuel was used of God to get, to give you the direction from God to initiate it. Isn’t that something, its all perfect, even in every small detail God… It’s like moving the sheep, John… (J) Hmhmm. (M) It’s just a little ‘pat’ here, and a little ‘pat’ there, to get you where He wants you to be. And Samuel was a little ‘pat’ from God, the Shepherd. (Julie) I just… I’ve marveled for ahmm… He’s so surprising, it’s so surprising for me to see Him in me the way I’ve seen Him seen Him in you, you know? I mean, when I met you… I was thinking about this, this morning too, when you stepped off the plane in Lubbock, Texas, and to me this is what the mystery is, this is what so much of the Church doesn’t know. He’s alive, He comes down to the earth. And He says… I read the scripture this morning out of Murray where Murray quotes it, where God says, “I am the high and holy One and I dwell in the lofty places, but also, with him who’s contrite in spirit.” So, I mean that verse, the way Murray presents it, it’s so confirming. He will come down to the earth in a vessel that’s given to Him. And, and I have seen Him that way with you. I met Jesus Christ alive and present. And it, it rocked everything I had believed up to that point. It made me realize that everything I’d believed up to that point, everything I practiced in the church up to that point, was me more or less hoping in a theory; it didn’t have reality to it. But when you realize that the Son of God Himself will be in the midst of your daily life, and in the midst of a Body. And everything I did from that point on was believing in Him in you, you know? Believing in that. And I guess it’s expanding to me, now I’m realizing I am as affected by Jesus Christ in John or Carole or Don or Jen, I’m being constantly affected by His presence in them, and it sets an example. I knew Jesus Christ as a Shepherd by having been shepherded by Him. And I had seen, I had seen Him that way. I have Him treat people with respect and love and kindness; I’d experienced the very power of Jesus Christ. There have been times where I’ve seen you treat a waitress or whatever, that way, and I’ve seen Jesus Christ minister to that person through that. And so it’s expanding for me, it surprises me to see Him in me that way, but it’s also causing me to realize how much I’ve been affected by Him embodied. And to me, that’s the mystery of the Church that we don’t get as much Christ in you, literally, it’s not just words. And, and when He comes in He’s so awesome, He’s so awesome as Himself. He doesn’t even have to speak. He can just walk. And He is… there’s so much power in Him, it affects things. (M) Well, we can all say we meet Him in you. And He’s very present in you, powerfully, for us. What Julie has described really is what Carole calls the Blood flowing among the members back and forth. That’s not saying it well, can you? (Carole) Flowing from the members back up to the Head, and back down through the members and.. (J) And the circulation of the sap going, going from the Head down to the roots and the branches. (M) And see, we’ve told a story from common life, a dog mauled by a bear, chickens dying, buying a shower… But see, the wonder of it is that as you allow Christ, in different ways, to see His will and Himself, you are affecting the universe. You’re tilting the universe under His government. As you come under His government, you bring everything under His government in your sphere. And He determines where your sphere goes. He sovereignly decides how far your testimony will go and who will pop in and listen to it and be affected, and whose life is changed simply by understanding the power of responsibility, and the authority that comes with God’s will. So, the increase of His government is happening through the church. We’re just a little church, insignificant in terms of life, but we see Him in everything, and we seek Him in everything, and He manifests Himself and His wisdom in everything. And when we conquer… When we allow ourselves to be conquered… (J) Hmhmm. (M) Then we increase His government, and that tilts the scale. That has an influence. That has a power that extends over the earth. It’s bigger than I have words to say.

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